Trinity
6 – Matthew 5:17-26 – July 15th, 2012
In
the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
This morning we hear our Lord
preaching once again in the Sermon on the Mount, and I fear that our
familiarity with this passage makes us forget just how wild, how bizarre this
preaching would have sounded when our Lord first spoke it. Consider the start of the sermon – the
beatitudes – blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. Completely radical. In that day, you didn’t think those who were
poor in spirit, who were burdened by the troubles of life, who saw the impact
of sin were blessed – in fact, we don’t really today. But Christ comes in and says, “No, no, you
who suffer, who see that this life is fallen and desolate and a waste land, you
are blessed, because you aren’t going to cling to mammon when you hear Me
preach; instead you will long for heaven.
Blessed are you.” That’s what
Christ is doing with the beatitudes – turning on its ear the idea of what it is
to be blessed – but that is a sermon for another week. This week we take up just after the
beatitudes, and here Christ Jesus turns the idea of what it means to be
righteous, what it means to be good, upon its head.
Our Lord begins, “Do not think that I have come to
abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill
them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass
away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” Now, even as He turns things upon their head,
Jesus makes a very good point. He hasn’t
come to destroy the law, He hasn’t come to destroy righteousness or morality…
but He is going to do something different.
He is going to fulfill the law, fulfill it truly, unlike the false
fulfillments that people were setting forth.
“Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and
teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven,
but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of
heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds
that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Nothing will be soft sold – nothing with be
lessened, nothing will be blown off. We
are to be righteous, and that is that.
Being Righteous was one of the main Jewish focuses of life. I was listening to some lectures on my road
trip, and they were about influences on Western Culture, and in talking about the
impact of the Old Testament the professor noted the Jewish focus on
righteousness, on doing what is good.
That was the heart of the Jewish approach to life – that’s what the
Pharisees strove after. When Paul says
that he was a Pharisee’s Pharisee, he is saying that by the standards of the
world, he was a good man. But whereas
the poor in spirit have the kingdom of heaven, unless your righteousness is
beyond the Scribes and Pharisees, you don’t get the kingdom of heaven. And why?
Because the Scribes and Pharisees relax the commandments, because they
treat the commands of God as something that we accomplish rather than goals
that we are to strive for, goals that we are to in humility confess that we do
not accomplish. Yes, the Law of God is
to show us how to live, but it is also to show us that we are sinful, that we
are in need of forgiveness and mercy from God – and if you relax the Law, make
it more manageable, think that you no longer have room for improvement, well
then you are lost.
Jesus gives an example – actually
several, but we are only going to look at the first. Murder.
The fifth Commandment. “You
have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever
murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that
everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever
insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You
fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”
A simple commandment. You
shall not murder. Thou shalt not
kill. Simple enough. But there is a depth here, there is rich
teaching about life and how we ought to live, how we ought to treat our
neighbor. And if our focus is upon our
neighbor, we will see that depth. If our
focus is only on trying to prove ourselves okay – we miss the depth. We check it off. Hey, look at me, I’m okay, I’ve not murdered
anyone. I’m not like that person that
showed up on the news – I’ve never had my mugshot taken with blood on my hands,
what I good boy am I. Jesus turns that
on its head. “But I say to you that everyone
who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.” Jesus so quickly cuts to the heart of the
matter. Murder, when it boils down to
it, is just the highest and most obvious expression of anger. Why does one man kill another? Anger.
Cain is angry with Abel, and he kills him. David is angry with Uriah the Hittite for
having such a beautiful wife, for letting scandal come upon David, and so he
kills him. Anger turns our relationship
with our neighbors upside down. To be
righteous is to seek to serve the neighbor; to be righteous is to have
compassion. To be angry destroys the
desire to serve, to have compassion, and rears up the desire to hurt, to harm,
to put back in their place, to put into the grave. When you are angry, you fall short of
righteousness. And don’t try to speak to
me of Righteous Anger, don’t go about relaxing the law, trying to justify
yourself. When Christ showed righteous
anger in the Temple, He did not kill or hate the money changers, but He Himself
died for them less than a week later – in His righteous anger He still acts for
their good. No, to be angry for us
fallen men is to be liable to judgment.
Or there is, “whoever insults his brother will
be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the
hell of fire.” Perhaps you think
you have kept your anger hidden. Or
perhaps you think it is justified – of course you can be a bit angry with your
brother – he’s a fool, and when you call him as such you are only speaking the
truth. If you insult, you are liable to
the council – it’s a supreme court case, it’s a matter of high treason to
righteousness. You are not to insult
your brother but to serve him! And if
you look callously upon your brother, if you cuss him out – read him the riot
act… you are liable to damnation. There
is no way around it. When the Lord said,
“Thou shalt not kill” – He wasn’t giving you a simple hoop to jump through; He
was teaching that you are to be righteous, that you are to be concerned about
your neighbor’s life, about making it better – and your anger would have you do
the opposite. Harsh. No relaxing of the Law here.
“So if you are offering your gift at the
altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave
your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother,
and then come and offer your gift. 25 Come to terms quickly
with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand
you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. 26 Truly,
I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.” Be reconciled! Don’t worry about outward shows of piety,
don’t worry about making sure that everyone knows what a “good little
Christian” you are and how much you give to the Church – make amends with your
brother. If you have wronged someone,
repent – and show them love and care and compassion. In fact, this last verse is the verse that
kicked off the reformation – Thesis number 1 of the 95 – When our Lord and
Master Jesus Christ said, “Repent” – He called for the entire life of believers
to be one of repentance – and “repent here” is literally “pay the last
penny”. Because this is where the rubber
hits the road. If we look at ourselves
and think, “Eh, I’m pretty good – it’s a shame more Christians weren’t like me”
– we are lost. We are lost in
self-righteousness. No, rather when we
contemplate God’s Law, God’s commands, we are to consider how short we fall,
and we are to repent, to turn away from our sin, our short comings and strive
to do more and more – strive even knowing that I was sinful yesterday and thus
I failed, that I am a sinner today and I will fail, and that unless the Lord
returns even tomorrow I will be a sinner and I will fail. Doesn’t matter – repent, strive after
righteousness, full righteousness, and confess your sin, your lack, your
failing.
That’s what it means to be poor in
Spirit. To see when you look at your
life not a tale of triumph where you crush all your foes, where you conquer
over every difficulty. No, it’s to see
your life honestly, see your sin, your lack, your need, and to repent, to
confess. To you who repent, to you who
are poor in Spirit – blessed are you, for yours is the Kingdom of God. “But how, pastor – how – my righteousness has
to exceed the Scribes and Pharisees, and I’m not going to play their game, I’m
not going to relax the Law so I can say, ‘see, what a good boy am I!’” Listen again to your Lord’s Words. “Do
not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come
to abolish them but to fulfill them.”
You do not fulfill the Law – but Christ Jesus does, and He does so for
you. The righteousness that God demands
of mankind – our brother, Christ Jesus, true God and true Man performs. Think of how often the Father’s voice booms
from heaven – this is My beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. Christ fulfills the Law. And yet, the Law says that those who break
the Law must die. Eat of the tree –
die. Break the law – get stoned. And we have broken it, and we are doomed to
death – and so Christ says, “fear not, I have come to fulfill the Law – there
will be a death, a death on account of sin – but I will take up your sin, I
will bear it Myself, for I am the Lamb of God who takes upon His shoulders the
sin of the world, and I will die for you.”
At your baptism, your sins were washed away – they were washed onto
Christ, and He bore them to the Cross and there He died, there He fulfilled the
Law for you. This is why we look to the
Last Day. Even should we die before
Christ returns, so be it – Christ will come and say, “Death, you don’t get
them, you don’t get to keep them – I have died and thus they shall live.”
Your righteousness exceeds that of the
Scribes and Pharisees, not because of how hard you work, not because of how
wonderful you are, but because your righteousness is actually Christ’s
righteousness which He gives to you in His Word of forgiveness and life – which
He poured upon you in Baptism so that you would rise to newness of life – which
He gives to you as He gives you His own Body and Blood in His Supper. Do not relax the law – no, strive and repent,
but above all see your Lord who has fulfilled the Law for you. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit + Amen.
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